Ukrainian Resilience

Our series will start again in September 2024. See links to recordings of our events below.

Organizers: Roman Oleksenko (Community Project Manager, Kyiv, Ukraine), Olga Nikolska (ISAR Ednannia), Geoffrey Glenn (Peace Corps Virtual Service), Sarah Wilson Sokhey (University of Colorado Boulder)

Co-sponsored by: PONARS Eurasia (The George Washington University, Washington, D.C.), ISAR Ednannia (civil society organization, Kyiv, Ukraine), and the Department of Political Science at the University of Colorado Boulder

Recordings of our events from Fall 2023 on YouTube 

Recordings of our events from Spring 2024 on YouTube

• "Dispelling Myths about Ukraine" (March 1, 2024)

• "Women in War" (March 8, 2024)

• "Ukrainian Children Kidnapped & Orphaned" (March 15, 2024)

• "Ukrainian Youth & Civic Engagement" (March 22, 2024)

• "War from a Teenage Perspective" (March 29, 2024)

• "Impact of War on Families & Migration" (April 5, 2024)

• "Diversity in Ukraine, Part 1 (Perspectives from the LGBT and Crimean Tatar communities") (April 12, 2024)

• "Diversity in Ukraine, Part 2 (Perspective from Roma community and regional differences)" (April 19, 2024)

• "Stand-Up Comedy during War" (April 26, 2024)

Civil Society Organizations Featured in Our Series

• ISAR Ednannia: https://ednannia.ua/en/about-us 

• Ukrainian Action: https://www.ukrainianaction.com/

• LGBT Military (Viktor Pylypenko): https://lgbtmilitary.org.ua/eng

• Pact (international organization) (Ayder Khalilov): https://www.pactworld.org/  

• Ukreate Hub: https://ukreatehub.eu/ 

• Ukrainian Catholic University (Romana Pavliuk studies here): https://ucu.edu.ua/en/ 

• Ukrainian Leadership Academy (Romana Pavliuk studied here): https://ual.ua/en 

• Ukrainian Volunteer Service (Anna Bondarenko): https://volunteer.country/ 

• Building Ukraine Together: https://www.bur.org.ua/en/ 

• Ptahy (Birds) created by Tata Kepler: https://ptahy.vidchui.org/ennew/ 

• DonorUA: https://www.donor.ua/en 

• Democratic Initiatives Foundation: https://dif.org.ua/en/about 

• “Tvoya Opora” (Your Support) Charitable Foundation: https://tvoya-opora.org/en 

• Vosnesensk Community Foundation: https://philanthropy.com.ua/en/member/view/bo-fond-gromadi-voznesenska 

• Texty.org (Yulia Dukach, Data Journalist and Head of russian Disinformation Study Section): https://texty.org.ua/tag/eng/ 

• All Ukrainian NGO "Magnolia" (Maryna Lypovetska discussed Ukrainian children who have been kidnapped and orphaned by war)

Events in Spring 2024

March 1: Dispelling the Myths of Ukraine: Media, History, and Culture

• Featured Guests: Professor Olexiy Haran (Kyiv-Mohyla Academy Professor, member of PONARS Eurasia) and Peter Dickinson (editor of the UkraineAlert blog at the Eurasia Center and the publisher of Business Ukraine and Lviv Today magazines and Atlantic Council expert)

March 8: Women in War (on International Women's Day)

• Featured Guests: Yaryna Chornohuz (currently serving in the Ukrainian military, formerly a combat medic with the Marine Corps, and renowned poet), and Daria Zubenko (Senior Sergeant currently serving in the Ukrainian military)

"Nothing has changed since the sun went down

only the complexion of several thousand people changed

in those years

Serhiy lost Yana

Yulia lost Ilya

Inna lost Igor

Halyna lost Mykola

all names are real all losses are not fictional" 

Read the full poem by Yaryna Chornohuz here: https://censor.net/en/r3446528

March 15: Kidnapped & Orphaned Youth

• Featured Guest: Maryna Lypovetska, All-Ukrainian NGO "Magnolia"

"More Than 700,000 Ukrainian Children Taken To Russia Since Full-Scale War Started, Official Says," RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, July 31, 2023 

March 22: Youth and Civic Engagement

• Featured Guests: Anna Bondarenko, Ukrainian Volunteer Service, and Irina Belaeva from ISAR Ednannia and who is working on UNICEF project in 7 regions of Ukraine. 

You can see more about the Ukrainian Volunteer Service here.

 Please see this powerful video (created by the band, Imagine Dragons) with a Ukrainian boy whose home and whole town were destroyed. 

March 29: War from a Teenage Perspective

• Featured Guests: We will be joined by Nazar Oleksenko (a 17 year old high school graduate from Kyiv) and Romana Pavliuk (an 18 year old freshman from Ukrainian Catholic University). 

April 5: The Impact of the War on Families & Migration

• Featured Guests: Iryna Mazur (Honorary Consul of Ukraine in Philadelphia and Vice President, Director of Advocacy and Information Program, Ukrainian Federation of America) and Svitlana Zaluzhna (Founder, Open Nation NGO)

April 12: Diversity in Ukraine, Part 1

•  Featured Guest: Ayder Khalilov, Senior Program Manager at Pact and Viktor Pylypenko, veteran and head of the NGO, "Ukrainian LGBT Military for Equal Rights" ; See this article from Reuters featuring Viktor, "Gay War Veteran Speaks Out for Equal Rights in Ukraine's Military," September 17, 2021.

April 19: Diversity in Ukraine, Part 2

• Featured Guests: Yuliya Bidenko, Associate Professor, Karazin Kharkiv National University, an expert for the EU delegation to Ukraine's Initiative "Team Europe," and a visiting scholar at Freie University (Berlin), and Anzhelika Bielova, a regional representative from Zaporizhia on the Ukrainian Women's Congress and the founder of Voice of Romni and a participant in the International Visitor Leadership Program organized by the U.S. Department of State.  

April 26: Stand-Up Comedy in the Time of War

• Featured Guest: Colin Kubik; see the Ukrainian Stand-Up Comedy YouTube channel and Anton Tymoshenko

Events in Fall 2023 (recordings on YouTube)

September 22: Launch event - Civil  Society and Ukrainian Resilience: Paving a Way Forward with Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, John E. Herbst

• Moderator in Kyiv: Olga Nikolska (Ednannia, civil society organization)

• Moderator in Washington DC: Sarah Wilson Sokhey (University of Colorado Boulder)

September 29: Civil Society in Ukraine Since the 1990s   

• Featured guests: Serhiy Shapovalov (Democratic Initiatives Foundation representative) & Svitlana Kuts (civil society expert) with Olga Nikolska (ISAR Ednannia) moderating.  This panel will be dedicated to the emergence and development of Ukrainian civil society organizations (CSOs) following the 1991 referendum on independence. We would like to study this topic from two different perspectives – sociological and personal.

  • Serhiy Shapovalov represents Democratic Initiatives Foundation named after Ilko Kucheriv – the first Ukrainian independent foundation that brought exit polls during elections to Ukraine. Exit polls results of DIF were always the closest to the final election results and sometimes became decisive for revolutionary events to begin. Serhiy will trace the changes in Ukrainian civil society based on historical events that happened in Ukraine, drawing on research conducted by the Foundation.

  • Svitlana Kuts has been a part of the civil society since 1994. She has established and run several NGOs. In 2007 she initiated and founded the National Philanthropy Award in Ukraine. She is the author and founder of the Course for Professional Fundraisers (2008). Svitlana wrote a paper on the history of philanthropy in Ukraine, where she highlighted the role of civil society in the socio-political governance system. Svitlana is a proud alumna of the International Fellowship Program of the Center for Philanthropy and Civil Society (CUNY, USA) on the topic of "Philanthropy and Civil Society", and a participant in research projects in the USA, the UK, the Netherlands and Ukraine.

October 6: Civil Society Filling in Governance Gaps

• Iryna Slavinska, founder and CEO of Donor.ua who works on blood drives

• Victoria Baltser, ex-Head of Voznesensk Community Foundation, secretary of the city council of Voznesensk who does community work on the frontlines

• Dina Volynets, Head of Supervisory Council of Tvoya Opora Charitable Foundation who provides social and humanitarian assistance

• Ievhen Ianiuk, Zdorovi - medical equipment for hospitals - Center of Volunteerism and Protection (TBC) who works on shelters for IDPs

• Marlog-Catsudei - humanitarian logistic center - tacmed, frontline hospitals, frontline and de-occupied territories humanitarian assistance 

October 13: Soft Power: russian Influence in Ukraine, the US, and the World

• Featured guests:  Yevhen Hlibovytsky (Nestor Group & Ukrainian Catholic University) in conversation with Roman Oleksenko (Ukrainian Action Team Leader)

October 20: International Networks of Support

• Featured guests: Dr. Emma C. Mateo (Petro Jacyk Postdoctoral Research Scholar in Ukrainian Studies at Columbia University, Lecturer in Sociology), and Jeffrey Hartman (Founder and CEO of Ukrainian Action)

October 27: Disinformation & Propaganda, and Western Perspectives

• Featured guests:  Lili Bivings (Business Editor at The Kyiv Independent) and Yulia Dukach (Data Journalist at https://texty.org.ua/, Head of russian Disinformation Study Section) 

November 3: The Role of Civil Society in Ukraine’s Future

• Featured guest: Tata Kepler, founder of Ptahy organization to provide civil & tactical medicine, and recipient of the National Legend of Ukraine Presidential Prize